This invention relates generally to sheet feeders and, more specifically, to an improved document positioner apparatus that is particularly useful in a combination recirculating document feeder and document positioner.
It is known in the art to provide document sheet feeder apparatus wherein either simplex or duplex document sheets can be fed to a platen of a copier/duplicator or the like for copying by a recirculating feeder and to provide, in combination therewith, a document positioner useful for feeding one or more document sheets to the platen for copying one or more times, and then removing such sheets from the platen along a nonrecirculating sheet path. For example, such apparatus is disclosed in the commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,176,945 which issued on Dec. 4, 1979 in the names of R. Holzhauser et al. and is entitled SHEET FEEDING APPARATUS FOR USE WITH COPIER/DUPLICATORS OR THE LIKE, and in the copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 172,339 entitled SHEET FEEDING APPARATUS filed on even date herewith in the name of R. Holzhauser. With respect to U.S. Pat. No. 4,176,945, reference is also made to a related publication appearing in item No. 17451 on pages 44-48 of Vol. 173 (September 1978 Edition) of Research Disclosure, published by Industrial Opportunities, Ltd., Homewell, Avant Hamsphire, P.O. 9-1EF, United Kingdom. As explained in U.S. Pat. No. 4,176,945, sheets of a document are fed seriatim to an exposure station by recirculating feeder structure to produce one or more collated sets of copies of the document. The document positioner apparatus can be used for feeding individual document sheets to the exposure station for copying one or more times.
In the sheet feeding apparatus disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,176,945 and the related Research Disclosure publication the document positioner apparatus is located relative to the position normally occupied by the machine operator so that the document sheets are fed to the document positioner apparatus by the right hand of the machine operator while the operator is near the control panel of the copier/duplicator. This is considered desirable not only because most people are right handed but also because of the desirability of minimizing movements of the machine operator when various functions are being performed. However, in the apparatus disclosed in the copending U.S. application Ser. No. 172,339 the document positioner apparatus is located so that the machine operator may need to move away from the control panel to use the document positioner. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide document positioner apparatus which can be used with the recirculating feeder disclosed in the beforementioned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 172,339 and which will allow the machine operator to feed document sheets to the document positioner conveniently and without leaving the usual operator position near the control panel.